African American Literature: A Guide to Reading Interests

by Alma Dawson Ph.D., Connie J. Van Fleet

Overview

This is the first readers' advisory guide to focus specifically on African American literature. It is designed to help book professionals better serve not only African American readers, but all readers who enjoy works by African American authors. Like other titles in the series, the s book organizes titles by genres—crime and detective fiction, frontier literature, historical fiction, inspirational literature, speculative fiction, romance, and mainstream fiction. In addition to novels, the authors include a chapter on Life Stories—diaries, memoirs, and autobiographies—since African American literature was born of these forms, which share many appeals with fiction and continue to play an important role in literary tradition. Each chapter is further organized by subgenre and theme. Title-author and subject indexes provide additional access. A list of resources for information on African American authors is posted on the Libraries Unlimited Web site as a supplement to the book. In all, more than 700 titles are categorized and described. Award-winning titles are noted. In addition, keywords, and subject lists accompany each entry. A brief history of the evolution of African American literature, guidelines for collection development and research, and tips for the readers' advisor makes this a complete resource for readers' advisors, reference librarians, and collection development specialists in public and academic libraries. It will also have great appeal to high school libraries, and will be a useful resource for college-level courses on African American literature. Young adult and adult. Grades 10 and up.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781563089312
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/30/2004
Series:	Genreflecting Advisory Series
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	7.24(w) x 10.12(h) x 0.96(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

ALMA DAWSON is Associate Professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University where she teaches courses in collection development, academic libraries, information literacy instruction, and foundations of library and information science. She was named the Russell B. Long Professor in Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University. She is also the recipient of the 2005 ALA Equality Award.

CONNIE VAN FLEET is Professor of School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. She is a recipient of the ALA/RASD Margaret E. Monroe Library Adult Services Award. She serves as Councilor-at-Large for the American Library Association and is co-editor of Reference & User Services Quarterly.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Contributors
African American Literature in a Multicultural Society
Reader's Advisory Services by Connie Van Fleet
Trends in African American Publishing by Alma Dawson
Collection Development by Alma Dawson
African American Literature
Crime and Detective Fiction by Connie Van Fleet
Frontier Literature by Jackie Jones
Historical Fiction by Ola Riley
Inspirational Literature by Melanie Simms
Life Stories by Connie Van Fleet
Mainstream Fiction by Karen Antell
Romance Fiction by Dana Watson
Speculative Fiction by Kari Moore
Resources
Reference Lists
Indexes